3. Preface
The general advantages and drawbacks of a key to a teaching ^ammar are well
known, and need not be rehearsed again here. A particular justificationin the present
instance is that T. O. Lambdin's Introduction to Biblical Hebrew has been found
helpful by many students working on their own without a teacher. They, at least, are
unlikely to abuse the answers to the exercises, andI hope that the notes will be helpful
to them, for such peopledeserve every encouragementin their efforts.
I have tried to include comments onmatters which I have found causedifficulty
to students working through Lambdin, and not simply to repeat what may already be
learnt by careful reading of his text. This explains why some items receive more
emphasis than others. While on the whole I regard Lambdin as the best teaching
grammar currently available, particularly in its handling of the verb and of syntax, I
have some reservations about its abolition of the traditional division of nouns into
declensions. In the early chapters, therefore, I have made a special effortto supplement
Lambdin's comments on noun formation; those who experience no problems with
Lambdin's explanations can always ignore these passages!
With this one exception, my aim throughout has been to follow Lambdin's
practices as closely as possible, even where these might not coincide with my own
preference (e.g. the use of the expression waw-conversive and the scheme of trans
literation in the first ten Lessons). This has resulted, I am aware, in a certain incon
sistency in the handling of the exercises: some arerendered quite literally, others more
idiomatically. Always, I have asked myself what someone who hasreached this stage
of leaming from this particular book can be expected to know, and to work within the
limitations of that framework. For similarreasons I haveattempted to putclarity before
technical exactitude when writing the notes to theexercises.
If I could offer one word of advice to those embarking on thiscourse, it would be
to encourage them in each Lesson to study the 'Hebrew into English' exercises first.
These give particular practice in the points raised in the Lesson, and will, it is to be
hoped, enable these to be mastered correctly before goingon to composition in Hebrew
itself My notes will be found tofollow this same approach.
This Key was originally prepared several years ago at the suggestion of a pub
lisher who then found after many attempts that its production was going to prove too
costly for its intended market. I am not the first author with an unexpectedly spare
manuscript on his hands to have turned to my good friends at the JSOT Press and to
have found that they have a convenient series which was prepared to adopt the orphan.
I am most grateful to the editors for their willingness to accept this book for
publication. Not unreasonably in the circumstances, however, they asked me to
produce 'camera-ready copy', and this has necessitated (not before time!) my leaming
how to use a word-processor that could handle pointed Hebrew and transliteration. For
much help in this regard I must pay tribute to the patience of my instructor, Mr M^e
Thompson, a doctoral student here in Cambridge. Readers who fmd the following
pages pleasing to theeye largely have him to thank.
Others to whom I owe a debt of gratitude include NIrs J. Hackett, who several
years ago typed the original draft of what musthave seemed a more than usu^ly dreary
manuscript and did so with hercustomary cheerfulness and skill. Several friends have
4. 6 Key to Lambdin's Introduction to Biblical Hebrew
looked over parts or the whole of the text at various stages and made helpful
suggestions for its improvement. Dr Iain Provan and Dr Michael Weitzman both
deserve special mention in this regard. Sadly, it is almost inevitable that some errors
will remain. While I naturally accept thefull responsibility for these, I must at the same
time seek the forgiveness and understandingof fellow teachers. At least any errors will
serve the useful purpose of trapping the unwary student who uses the Key
mechanically as a way of saving work! More seriously, teachers will, I am sure, agree
that if a few more are encouraged to learn Biblical Hebrew, the whole exercise will
have proved worthwhile.
H.G.M.Williamson
Cambridge
June 1987
